


Spirit Animals

by CookieDoughMe



Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: Animal Transformation, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-05
Updated: 2016-11-05
Packaged: 2018-08-29 05:23:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8476984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CookieDoughMe/pseuds/CookieDoughMe
Summary: Set at some point before the Barn; Audrey has one of those Haven days ... but at least she gets a nice photo as a memento.





	

Audrey was thinking hard as she walked along main street and so it took her a moment longer than it might have to notice that, not only were there not many people about, but there was a rather higher population of animals than might have been expected.

She noticed a cat first, huddled slightly in a doorway, then a dog out on its own. The goat and the emu and we're a bit more unusual and the lion really grabbed her attention, but it was when she saw the unicorn that she was sure this had to be a Haven thing.

She stopped walking and started to reach slowly for her radio, hoping the lion in particular would keep up its walk along the other side of the street rather than turn it's attention her way. A panther was coming up the road from the other direction and she noticed another dog getting closer behind her - a big, tall thing, all muscle, but it at least looked domesticated and calm enough.

So she turned back so she could keep her eye on the lion and the panther making its way towards her as she tried to get Stan on the radio. Which didn't go so well because not only did she get no reply, but the noise drew the lion’s attention and it started padding across the street towards her.

The unicorn by this time had skittered off in the other direction and luckily there were no other people around, but she noticed with dismay that the panther was heading her way, head down as it stalked towards her in a way far too intent for her liking. She pulled out her gun but hesitated; these could be mirages, aspects of someone's imagination only. Or they could be people;  in Haven it was really hard to tell. And she didn't want to shoot them unless she was sure. Or unless she really had to.

But with the lion and the panther converging on her she had to do something, so she fired a shot into the air, hoping the noise would be enough to scare them off. She was relieved to see the lion turn tail and run, puzzled that the panther merely cowered and whined, and surprised to hear a similar sound from just behind her; the dog had gotten closer than she realised and was cowering at the noise too, head pressed down to the pavement, almost like it was trying to cover its ears with its paws at the unexpected noise, but somehow also determined not to run.

She took a step closer and slowly reached out to put her hand on its back, looking for a collar; if this was someone's pet that could possibly help to shed some light on something. When stroking it got no response, she tried a few soothing words and it jumped at the sound of her voice. She'd never been particularly good with animals, but that had looked like surprise; almost like it hadn't felt her. She put the gun back in her holster and saw it relax a little. Did dogs really understand guns like that?

Remembering suddenly the panther behind her, she turned to see it cautiously coming out of its own crouch and heading slowly towards her. But something about the way it moved now was different; it wasn’t stalking her any more and it suddenly seemed anything but threatening. As it got closer, she noticed the tangle of necklaces it wore, a whistle hanging down in front of its chest.

“Duke?” she said, astonished. It seemed like the creature pricked up its ears at that, but as she stared in fascination in started to snarl at something behind her, and she turned around to see the dog growling at a hippo of all things, coming towards them from the other end of the street. As she reached for her gun again, the panther and the dog moved themselves between her and the hippo, growling, hissing and snarling, hackles up and looking ready for a fight. They moved next to each other, putting themselves between her and the hippo, for all the world acting like her body guards.

Between their impressive show and the sound of her gun firing into the air again, the hippo decided perhaps another direction was more interesting after all and ambled off leaving Audrey with the certainty that yes, the panther was Duke, and the dog was Nathan.

“Nathan,” she said, and the dog turned slowly towards her, apparently still satisfying itself - himself - that the hippo was really leaving. “Can you understand me?” Audrey asked. Nathan sat and tilted his head at her, as Duke reached her side and rubbed his head along her thigh, for all the world like a giant version of a hungry domestic cat.

“Duke?” she said, and he looked at her too. She had to assume that was who they were, and that they in some sense remembered themselves, which presumably meant that all the other unlikely and impossible animals were citizens of Haven too.

With Nathan and Duke sat either side of her, she tried the radio again, but no one was answering. So she pulled out her cell and called everyone she could think of, but no luck. Duke and Nathan were sticking close to her side, but also keeping wary eyes on each other, redirecting their bodyguard tendencies to each other it seemed, now that there were no other immediate threats to take their attention.

It was possible that she was the only person left in Haven. No, she corrected herself, it was possible that her and the Troubled person were the only people left in Haven. As she tried to call the station one last time, Nathan started a low long growl at Duke and Duke bared his teeth, hissing back in response.

She let them make their point for a minute, then gave up on the phone call and put her cell back in her pocket. “Guys, no. Stop,” she said, trying to sound as stern and commanding as possible. And perhaps she succeeded because they both backed off a little, glancing up at her with what could almost have been some kind of self-conscious guilt.

“I don't like this,” she said, looking around at the menagerie scattered along the other side of the street. “I don't want you getting into a fight with like, a dinosaur or something, who knows what we're going to see next. Come on,” she added, coming to a decision, and started walking towards the station. Closely matching each other for height and size, the two of them followed close at either side of her, like some kind of slightly surreal honour guard.

Nathan was was a big dog, rangy with long legs - the name Irish Wolfhound came to mind, although she wondered if he had some Alsatian in him too. He stepped carefully, paws padding steadily on the pavement, but he didn't seem to be having any more difficulty with his inability to feel than usual. His fur was nearly black, with some brown and grey mixed in, and almost scruffy, like a wire-haired terrier, only not. She wondered if he knew where she was leading them, but in any case he seemed very content to follow.

On her other side, Duke padded along in a rhythmic grace, pitch black fur gleaming in the sunlight as his shoulders moved around each other, the fluid movements of a house cat stalking a toy, but magnified many times. She'd never been this close to a big cat before and it was fascinating to see the strength in his movements, even if it did leave her very aware of how glad she was that he was not stalking her. He looked around constantly, presumably on the lookout for any more threats to snarl at.

The station was largely empty, a few unlikely animals scattered around, but luckily none that seemed interested in attacking. She walked into their office and tried not to laugh when Nathan when straight to his chair, somehow managing to jump up into it and sitting there at his desk looking for all the world like he might try to answer the phone if it rang.

Duke was less comfortable, reluctant to go much further than the doorway so that she had to coax him in, glad at least that dogs could not laugh or snark to put him off. When she finally closed the door behind him, Duke became less happy still, pressing his head against her in an apparent attempt to get her to change her mind and head back out of the room.

She sat down on the sofa and Duke started pacing, long fluid strides up and down the small space. “I have to go and figure this out and I think it will be better if you two stay here so that I know you're safe. Whoever’s Trouble this is, they are likely still human, so they won't be too hard to identify.”

They sat and looked at her and she knew they didn't like this plan. If they could talk they would likely have many arguments against it, (and who knows how convincing they would be), but the fact was they couldn't, and she didn't like the idea of their protective instincts taking over and launching them into an unnecessary fight against some fierce creature they were never going to win. She couldn't be sure exactly how well they understood her, or if that would change; they might not continue to listen to her at all.

“I don't know how much of you is human and how much animal, and I don't know if that will change. If you stay here, you should be safe. I'll try not to be any longer than necessary.” Duke put his head on her knee, a heavy weight designed perhaps to stop her from moving. But she just stroked his head and stood up, shifting out from under him.

She stood in front of Nathan’s desk and looked him in the eye, “I'm going to lock the door. If you had to, I guess you could probably break it down, but I'd really rather you didn't.” He didn't look happy, but he didn’t make any move to stop her either. Just in this short time, Duke had resumed his pacing behind her, and she almost had to dodge his paws as she walked to the door.

As she locked it she looked back and saw him sat beside it. They were basically as far away from each other as they could physically be, and she sighed to see it; but they weren’t growling at each other at least and they should be OK in here for a while.

“Right,” Audrey said to herself, “Only one other person left in town, how hard can this be?”

In the office, Nathan and Duke couldn't do much besides watch the door and each other, and so for a long while that was what they did, one eye on each. Duke revisited his pacing again for a while, until Nathan gave a short little growl and Duke gave up to sit on the sofa instead.

He sat upright and faced the door for a while, watching in vain for Audrey who was evidently taking longer than she'd hoped to figure this out. Duke glanced back at Nathan, who jumped out of the chair in a shared frustration, trying out Duke's pacing for a while, though it didn't do much to help.

It was later still when Audrey finally walked back through the station, peering in through the window to see what she was coming back to. She grinned and making extra effort to move as quietly as possible, carefully unlocked the door to stand in front of the sofa and it's two sleeping occupants.

Somehow it looked like they had started off curled up at either end, before stretching out towards each other. Duke's head lay along Nathan’s front leg, Duke's paw hanging off the front of the sofa as Nathan's nose was pressed into its back in the tiny space between it and Duke's body. They were lying alongside each other, noses pressed to each other’s fur, legs alongside each other. It looked like if they had been human, they would have had their arms around each other. They only just fitted on the sofa and it didn't look particularly comfortable for either of them, but then the options for two animals their size were limited. She carefully took out her phone and snapped a quick photo, before turning her back on them to close the door; just loud enough to wake them she hoped.

And yes, when she turned back they were both facing her, sitting upright at either end of the sofa as if nothing had happened. She smiled to herself. She would tell them about the photo, but it would probably be better to get them back to their own selves first.

“Good news,” she said. “The Troubled person was a very confused young woman, but it's all under control. Now that she knows what's going on, she can turn you back, she just needs to touch you to do it. She's at The Gull at the moment - sorry Duke, it seemed like the best place - and Stan and Dwight are getting everyone organised. Most of the town is cleared so I just need to get you two over there. OK?”

Duke jumped lightly off the sofa and stood pointedly in front of the door. Nathan followed him down and stood in front of her wagging his tail. She laughed, “OK then!” she agreed.

And as the three of them walked through the empty station, down the steps and through the nearly empty town towards the Gull, it was nice to realise that they seemed to have lost the urge to snarl at each other. They still walked either side of her like her bodyguard though, a comforting solid presence against the strangeness of the day.

She brought one hand to rest on Duke’s shoulder and then brought the other forward a little first so that Nathan could see what she was doing, before resting it on his his. Even like this they were almost exactly the same height. They walked along like that in a companionable silence through a strangely quiet town and Audrey found herself distinctly glad that they had a little way to go, and happy to take her time in getting there.

**Author's Note:**

> And it has to be said, that you may perhaps find me, when I'm having a bad day, imagining a wolfhound and a panther either side of me as I walk, or curled up under my desk asleep while I work. And you may also find me, being constantly surprised by how much better it somehow manages to make me feel.


End file.
